


The Last Kiss

by hollyandvice (hiasobi_writes)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Curse Breaking, Curses, M/M, Schmoop, True Love's Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:22:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23760778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiasobi_writes/pseuds/hollyandvice
Summary: Steve catches Tony when the sorcerer drops him, cradling his head to keep it from hitting the ground. Steve looks up at the sorcerer with a snarl. "What did you do to him?""Damned him, just like I was paid to do."Tony gets hit with the Snow White curse. Guess who saves the day?
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 19
Kudos: 209





	The Last Kiss

Steve sees it coming, which makes the whole thing that much worse. He'd thought he had the damn sorcerer pinned down long enough for Strange to bind him, but apparently he was very very wrong. The golden swirls had shimmered into existence and Steve had loosened his grip just enough for the sorcerer to pull away and leap through the portal that had suddenly appeared. Steve swears as soon as he realizes what's happened and spins on his heel, whipping around to find the matching portal on the other side of the battlefield.

Right behind Tony.

Steve doesn't have time to shout out a full warning. He barely has time to shout out Tony's name. Tony snaps his head around to look at Steve, but then the sorcerer appears beside him and grabs him by the chin, turning him around and kissing his lips.

Steve's already running toward the two of them, but when he sees what the sorcerer's doing to him, he pushes himself even faster. He's not going to let any of their fucking magic mess with Tony any more than it already has.

Tony's struggling against the sorcerer, pushing at their shoulders to try and break free, but it doesn't seem to be doing any good. They just pull Tony in closer, deepening the kiss. Steve's still a dozen yards away but he closes the distance fast. He sees Tony's struggles start to fade until, just before Steve reaches him, his arms fall to his sides.

Steve catches Tony when the sorcerer drops him, cradling his head to keep it from hitting the ground. Steve looks up at the sorcerer with a snarl. "What did you do to him?"

"Damned him, just like I was paid to do."

"That's not what I asked."

They shrug again. "He can only be woken by the kiss of one that loves him completely. Someone that knows all his sins and faults and loves him because of them rather than in spite of them. Without that, there is nothing you can do to wake him."

Steve is torn between dropping Tony so he can get to the fucking sorcerer, and hanging onto Tony to keep him safe from any other mishaps. The decision is taken out of his hands when one of Clint's arrows sprouts from the sorcerer's right shoulder. They gasp, their body arching a little from the pain, but Steve doesn't care. He hefts Tony into his arms, suit and all, and books it out of the sorcerer's range. He can only watch as Strange and the rest of his team work to take the sorcerer down. He's too worried about Tony to abandon him to return to the fight. So he sits and watches and hopes that this won't end as badly as his gut is telling him it will.

Once they've got the sorcerer neutralized, Strange brings them over to Steve in advance of the rest of the team. He waves a hand in front of Tony and there's a brief shimmer of light that fades just as quickly as it had come. Strange's lips thin and he turns to glare at the sorcerer. "I see you spoke true."

"I wouldn't lie."

"And you can't undo it."

"You already know the answer to that. There's no way to undo this magic without true love's kiss."

Strange heaves a sigh and gives Steve a forlorn look. "I am sorry, my friend. There is nothing I can do."

Steve tightens his grip on Tony. "You're serious right now."

Strange's lips thin, but he doesn't say anything.

Steve nods and gets to his feet. "You find anything, you let me know ASAP, alright?"

Strange nods before opening another portal and walking through with the sorcerer in his hands.

Clint power walks the last twenty steps to Steve's side. "What did Strange have to say?"

Steve doesn't look away from Tony's face, his heart in his throat. "We need to call Pepper." Then he turns on his heel and heads toward their transport. There's no time to waste on any of this. They need Tony back and he's not going to waste a goddamn second of their time.

* * *

Pepper is in the Avengers common area when they make it home. She's pale and tight lipped as Steve brings Tony into the common area. He'd stopped off in the lab long enough to get Tony out of his armor, but somehow that makes everything worse because his head had spent the bulk of the elevator ride up lolling behind him. It's still arched back behind him when the elevator doors open in front of them.

Pepper takes half a step toward Steve before stopping short. She looks up and meets Steve's eyes.

Steve sets his jaw. "Let me get him up to his room."

Pepper nods, still tight-lipped as Steve steps past her toward the stairway up to the penthouse. He can hear her heels clip clipping their way behind him as they make their way up the stairs. Steve sets Tony down on the bed. He steps away and Pepper passes him, stepping in close to Tony. She kneels down, settling back on her heels. She brushes Tony's hair away from his forehead. Steve can feel the tenderness in the way she touches him. He knows he should turn away, but he can't take his eyes off of Tony as Pepper leans in to press a kiss to his lips.

Steve's breath goes still in his chest, waiting for Tony to open his eyes again. He's ready to smile at the way Tony will laugh at all of them for worrying him. Ready to call Strange back and let him know that they've got it all figured out and there's no need to grill the sorcerer any longer to try to get information out of him.

When Pepper pulls back, Tony's eyes are still closed. Steve's heart is hammering in his chest. "What is it?"

Pepper gets to her feet and brushes nonexistent dust off of her skirt. "What exactly did the sorcerer say when they told you how to break the spell?"

"That the kiss of someone that loved him would undo the curse."

Pepper looks away from Tony and meets Steve's eyes. "And?"

Steve hesitates. "That it had to be someone that knew all of him and loved him in spite of his flaws."

Pepper nods sharply. "I do care for him, Steve, but I don't think I'm the right person for this."

"What?"

"Tony has his faults, I think we both know that. And I do care for him. But I love him in spite of his faults, not because of them."

Steve doesn't have the words to respond to that. He'd been so certain that Pepper would be the person for this, because if she isn't the one-- "Who do you suggest we ask, then?"

Pepper tilts her head to the side, her lips tilted up in a tiny smile. "I'd suggest looking to the people closest to him. The ones that love him for all that he is. Romantic love isn't the only kind of love there is, Steve."

Steve stands up a little straighter. "Right."

Pepper looks back at him with those same distant eyes. She sweeps past him and over to the stairs down to the common area. She glances back over her shoulder at Steve. "The answer may be closer than you think, Steve."

Steve nods again even though he doesn't have a clue what she's talking about. He waits until she's disappeared from view and he can hear her talking to Natasha downstairs before he looks back over at Tony.

More than romantic love, huh? Steve knows exactly who to call next.

* * *

Rhodes shows up within a few hours. The sun is setting, throwing long shadows across Tony's floor by the time Rhodes is there and out of the armor. Steve had made sure to explain everything to Rhodes over coms on his way back stateside, and so Rhodes doesn't say or ask anything as he follows Steve up the stairs to the penthouse. There had been something skeptical in his expression when Steve met him at the elevator, but Steve had set that aside. There are few things stronger than the bond of brothers-in-arms, and Steve figures that Rhodes is the next best guess after Pepper.

Rhodes sits on the bed beside Tony, staring at him for a long moment. Then he leans down and kisses Tony on the forehead. The kiss isn't particularly swift, nor does Rhodes linger. Tony stays still long past the moment that Rhodes has drawn away.

Steve doesn't have the strength to ask Rhodes about what's just happened, but Rhodes doesn't seem to need to hear the question to know that he needs to answer it.

"I don't think I'm the right person to break this spell either, Rogers." Rhodes reaches out and squeezes Tony's hand briefly before getting to his feet and turning to face Steve fully. "This is going to take someone that really cares about him beyond a shadow of a doubt. Someone that takes all that he is and loves the parts of him that make the rest of us cringe. I don't think I'm that person. I've seen him at his darkest and I still love him, but there's something about how dark he can go that freaks me out sometimes. I love him in spite of that, but I don't love him because of those things."

Steve swallows. "You've been talking to Pepper."

"I have. But I'd say the same thing regardless. This is the reality of who Tony is. He's a hard man to love, and you're going to need to do some more digging to find someone that loves him because of his darkness rather than in spite of it."

Steve ignores the way his heart is trying to beat its way out of his chest. "Any suggestions?"

"Look around. Find the people that have loved Tony and talk to them. See if you can find their reasons. You'll find the right person eventually."

Steve purses his lips and gives a sharp nod. Rhodes gives him that same distant look that Pepper had just hours ago before he heads down to the common area on his way out.

There has to be an answer somewhere. There has to be. Steve's knocked off the two obvious answers, but there's got to be an option that exists that he hasn't thought of yet. In the meantime, he's going to do what Rhodes suggested. He knows Tony's dated more people than Steve even knows in this century, but that doesn't mean Steve can't track them all down.

Steve looks up at the ceiling. "JARVIS. Can you get a list of all the people Tony's dated and set up meetings with all of them for me?"

"That list would be rather short, Captain. Sir hasn't dated much."

"He hasn't?"

"Prior to the formation of the Avengers, sir preferred to keep his contacts a bit... briefer."

Steve feels his face heat. "Well, get everyone he's slept with recently, then, and get me a connection to them. Doesn't have to be face-to-face, I just need to ask them a few questions."

Steve spends the next three days vetting Tony's many, _many_ partners, and only ends up deeming three of them suitable to fly out to New York to kiss him. He has Happy come up and give it a shot in the meantime, and that goes as well as Pepper and Rhodes' attempts had gone. Steve thinks he should be used to the disappointment by the time the first of Tony's lovers shows up, but he isn't. He's also somewhat sure that he shouldn't want to get used to that feeling of defeat. That would mean that he'd given up on Tony, and that is absolutely unacceptable.

Steve very carefully doesn't learn the names of the three people he'd flown out to try to wake Tony. Not because he doesn't want to, but because he doesn't want to learn any more than he has to. It was hard enough knowing that Tony slept with every woman under the sun, but it had been harder to realize that he'd slept with plenty of people that didn't identify as women too. One of the people Steve had deemed worthy to dome out and try to wake Tony was nonbinary, and at least a third of the people he'd turned away had been male. Steve tries not to think about why that has him nauseous for all of those phone calls. He also tries not to think about what it means that he hadn't invited any of the men to come and try to wake Tony. That should probably worry him more than it does, but he's trying not to let it.

In the end, none of the three prospective candidates had been the right person, and Tony is still sleeping up in his penthouse at the end of the week. Steve knows he's starting to get a little desperate, but he knows he has to do something to bring Tony back, even if it throws his own position as team leader into question.

He starts with Bruce. "You and Tony have always been close. I should have asked you sooner. Will you try to wake him?"

Bruce worries his lip. "I just... I don't think I'm the guy, Steve."

"Why not?"

"If Pepper and Rhodey weren't enough to wake him, why would I be?"

"Because you've been closer to him than anyone else on the team, right from the start. If anyone on this team could wake him up, it would be you."

Bruce pulls his lips into his mouth and cuts his eyes over to Steve. Steve can tell that he wants to say something. Instead he just nods and follows Steve up to the penthouse. He sits next to Tony like Rhodes had and kisses Tony on the forehead in the same way, but it does exactly no good. Steve can't say he's completely surprised at this point, but he is utterly disappointed despite it.

Steve forces a smile. "Thank you for at least trying, Bruce."

Bruce hums and gives Steve a scrutinizing look. "Sure thing."

Steve's starting to run out of ideas. Clint and Tony bicker, but it might be more in jest than Steve had realized. He could ask, but somehow he doesn't think that will go over too well. Thor's off-world and though he loves everyone in his way, Steve isn't so sure that will translate to the kind of love that would wake Tony.

That leaves Natasha.

Steve mulls the idea over for a solid six hours before giving in and going to find her. He finally locates her in the gym. "Natasha--"

"No."

Steve blinks. "You don't even know what I was going to ask."

"Of course I do. You want me to go kiss Stark and see if that will wake him up. I could, but I already know what the result is going to be, so why bother?"

"How could you possibly know?"

"Because while I care about Stark as much as any of you, I also know what makes him tick. I don't like it and I'm not going to lie about that. I have to love him unconditionally to wake him up, right?" She shrugs. "I'm not going to be enough."

"Well then who the hell else am I supposed to ask?" Natasha barely seems to register the way Steve is shouting at her. It somehow makes him even angrier. "It's not you and it's not Bruce and it's not Pepper or Rhodes or Happy or anybody else that I've brought in to try to wake him up, so what the hell else am I supposed to try?"

Natasha rolls her eyes and stalks over to him, jabbing him in the chest with a finger. "You're thinking too big, dumbass. You need to think smaller. Simpler."

"I already did that."

"Then think even smaller and simpler than that. Who's the one person that's fought for Tony every step of the way through this? Who's the person that reached out to everyone that might be the right person? Who called his ex-lovers on the off chance that one of them might be it? That's the person you need to ask, Steve. Not me."

Steve stares at her. "What. Me?"

Natasha gives a heavy sigh at that. "Yes, Steve. You."

"But I..."

"Don't lie to me, Steve. We both know how much you care about Tony. That's not going to change any time soon. So go on upstairs, give him a kiss and be his Prince Charming for god's sake."

"But I'm not...."

“Not what? Not good enough? Not suave enough? Not enough? Fuck all that, Steve, you are enough. You've always been enough. You've just been too scared to see that Tony's always thought the world of you and would let you into his life in a heartbeat. You deserve to be happy, Steve. You, of all people, deserve that."

Steve's throat feels tight and he knows there are tears starting at the corners of his eyes, more for the pitying look that Natasha is giving him than from feeling them. "Nat--"

Natasha reaches out, cupping Steve's cheek in one hand. "Steve. It's okay. It's not like it was in the 40s. You can want this. You can _have_ this. You just have to be brave enough to reach out and take advantage of the world that you want to exist."

Steve closes his eyes and feels a tear trace its way down his cheek. "You're sure?"

"I'm sure that you love Tony more than anyone else alive on this earth right now. I don't know if it'll be enough, but if anyone will be, it's you."

Steve nods, not entirely certain that he believes her, but wanting to more than he's willing to admit. His throat is still too tight to speak, so he presses a kiss to Natasha's forehead in thanks and turns to leave the gym.

Steve takes his time making his way back up to the penthouse. It's not that he hadn't thought of this particular course of action before. He had. He'd just been sure that there was someone that loved Tony enough that Tony could love in turn. Steve doesn't expect reciprocity, but if this is the only way to wake Tony then he'll do it without a second thought.

He opens the door to Tony's room, and his eyes catch on Tony's face. The afternoon sunlight is streaming in through the window, casting Tony's face in a warm glow. It almost makes it look like he's perfectly healthy, perfectly fine, instead of waiting for an impossible curse to be lifted. Steve lets himself live in the lie for a moment. He wonders what it would be like to come home to Tony like this every day. If he could have Tony the way he's never let himself dream of. But that way lies madness, and Steve isn't about to let that consume him.

Steve crosses the room in half a dozen quick strides and settles down on the bed beside Tony. He grants himself one more moment to immortalize this Tony in his mind's eye. He reaches out to cover Tony's hand with his own, and runs his thumb over the back of Tony’s hand. Steve stares at Tony's face, at his lips, and feels the familiar warmth bloom in his chest, the one he now has a name for. He briefly considers stealing a kiss from Tony just so that he can know what it would feel like to kiss the man he loves. But he swallows the thought, unwilling to mess up their friendship with his messy feelings. Besides, it's not like this is going to work anyway.

With all the courage he doesn't feel, Steve lifts Tony's hand to his lips. He closes his eyes and presses a kiss to the back of his hand.

The instant his lips touch Tony's skin, the chill starts to leach its way out. The skin under Steve's lips warms, then his hand in Steve's grasp. Steve pulls back, unwilling to accept that this might be anything other than a dream for the brief moments it takes for the warmth to spread across Tony's skin, flushing him with a healthy color that's been missing for days. Steve starts to reach out to card his fingers through Tony's hair, a liberty he's taken more than once in this time of uncertainty. He only just manages to hold himself back and rest a hand on Tony's shoulder instead.

"Tony?"

Tony inhales deeply before his eyes slide open. Steve's chest fills with the kind of relief that he forgets Tony can inspire in him. He lifts his hand, ghosting his fingers over Tony's jaw. As soon as his mind catches up with the instinct he pulls back. That has Tony turning to look at him, a quiet, contemplative look in his eyes. "Hey Steve."

Steve blinks back the tears that are starting in the backs of his eyes again. "Hey Tony."

Tony smiles at him and it lights up his whole face. "Took you long enough."

"What?"

Tony reaches a hand up to cup Steve's jaw and run his thumb over his cheek. "I've spent a week in here watching you let anybody and everybody kiss me before you got up the guts to do it yourself. Can't say I'm surprised, but I can say I'm a little disappointed."

Steve blinks, trying to find the sense in Tony's words. "What?"

Tony smiles. He starts to sit up but winces in what might be pain. Steve presses down on Tony's shoulder, trying to keep him reclined. Tony takes that as an invitation to use his grip on Steve's jaw to pull him down into the bed atop Tony. He reaches up to take Steve's face in both of his hands "It was always you, Steve. Always. Not Pepper of Rhodey or Happy or any of the other people you brought in here. And, seriously Steve, _Bruce_? What on earth made you think that was a good idea?"

Steve's brain connects the dots. "You were here. The whole time."

"Bingo."

"What, just, like, your ghost or something?"

Tony laughs. "I dunno what I was, but I couldn't leave the room. At least, I couldn't get too far away from my body. So I was whatever the ghost equivalent is of a spirit that's stuck to their body."

Steve blinks. It makes some bizarre sort of sense in that this is just the kind of life they live now. "Huh."

Tony smiles and pulls him in closer, tracing his lips over Steve's jaw. "So. Why didn't you just jump right in and kiss me yourself."

"I--" Steve swallows. "I didn't think of it."

"Uh huh. Pull my leg a little harder."

Steve frowns. "I didn't. At least, not in a way that would be viable." Tony pulls back to search Steve's face. Steve feels the words on the tip of his tongue. Tony swipes his thumb across Steve's cheek and the words spill from his mouth. "I didn't think you would reciprocate."

Tony's eyes go wide. He opens his mouth to say something, but Steve isn't ready to hear it.

"I didn't think you would reciprocate, and having that for a moment only to lose you completely would have been too much to bear."

Tony tilts his head. Steve wants to run his fingers through Tony's hair where it's splayed out on the pillow behind him. "What changed your mind."

"Natasha. She seemed to think that I was the only person in the world that could wake you."

"And you believed her?"

"I believed that she believed that. I've trusted her instincts from day one and I wasn't about to stop today. But it didn't mean that I had to take everything. I could just kiss your hand and--"

"And wake me up when no one else could." Tony slides his hands from Steve's face over his shoulders and down his back. "I don't think that's the way true love's kiss is supposed to work."

"Oh really?"

"Yup. I'm feeling pretty scammed right now."

"Is that right?"

"Yes. I want my true love's kiss and I want it--"

Steve cuts Tony off with a kiss to the lips, warm and sudden and everything he hadn't let himself believe he could have. Tony winds his fingers through Steve's hair, pulling him in close and helping Steve sink into the kiss, slow and smooth and steady. It's everything Steve wants all wrapped up in one perfect package and there's nothing Steve wants more than to stay here in Tony's bed with him forever. It's not the right move right now, but he can't help but think that maybe one day in the near future it will be.

Steve softens the kiss and pulls back a little at a time, pulling away only to dive back in for another quick kiss, pulling away and then leaning back in for an even briefer kiss. Over and over until he's just leaving little pecks on Tony's lips. 

Steve forces himself to pull back far enough to meet Tony's eyes. "Can I take you out for dinner?"

Tony raises an eyebrow. "You are literally in my bed after waking me with True Love's Kiss, Cap, I don't know how to make it any clearer to you that I'm a sure thing."

Steve bites his lip, trying to stifle a laugh. He fails and ends up dropping forward to press his face into Tony's shoulder to hide the laugh.

Tony cards his fingers through Steve's hair. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, Cappuccino, you're the one that's been sitting there staring at me forlornly for the last week."

That stops Steve's laughter cold. He pulls away so that he can see Tony's face and remind himself that he is awake and alive. He swallows. "I know. And I know it may seem a little odd, but I'd like to do it again." Tony opens his mouth to speak but Steve cuts him off. “I want to sit across the table from you and smile at you and kiss you and know that you're alive. That you're mine. Please, Tony. Let me take you out to dinner."

Steve watches Tony's throat work and his eyes go wide. He nods. "Okay." His voice is a croak when he speaks. He clears his throat. "Okay. Yeah, that's... I'd like that."

Steve grins. "Good." He kisses Tony once more for good measure before he gets off the bed. "Six o'clock in the common area. Dress casual, but not lab-casual."

Tony props himself up on his elbows. "What, I don't even get to make out with you more before we go?"

Steve laughs, relief making the sound absolutely giddy. "Play your cards right and you might get even better than a makeout session when we get back tonight."

Tony's eyes go dark and heated. "Don't let your mouth write checks it can't cash."

"Who says my mouth can't cash them?"

Steve laughs his way out of the room, reveling in Tony's gobsmacked expression. It may not be the look Steve was going for, but it's a damn sight better than he could have ever imagined.

He doesn't let himself succumb to the desire to go back and suck Tony's brains out through his dick. There will be plenty of time for that later. In the meantime, he needs to get ready for their date tonight.

Because if Steve plays _his_ cards right, he might just get a boyfriend out of this, and that really would be the best outcome to this whole mess.

**Author's Note:**

> This is literally just schmoopy goodness I wrote to take my mind off of my longfic from hell.


End file.
